This is the first time this recipe is being sharing with the world. I grew up watching my grandfather make this apple cake and to this day it is the only apple cake I have ever liked.

On one visit, he told me that it was time to learn how to bake this treasured cake for future generations of my family to enjoy as I have. Though he never used a written recipe (like I need to), he did help me write this out during one of his last bakings in the year leading up to his passing. I’m not sure if it is my inability to cook or bake anything or just my being sentimental but I have yet to attempt to make Rudy’s Apple Cake.

As I was reviewing the recipe, I could help but notice that it doesn’t really take that long to make yet it always seemed like an all day production to me…must have been my anticipation and impatience.

Like this:

As I stood amongst a few hundred thousand people this cold morning awaiting the start of the 57th Inaugural Ceremonies for President Barack Obama, I could not help but think about my ancestors. Did my people vote?

100 years ago, Washington D.C. was preparing for the March 4, 1913 swearing in of Woodrow Wilson; did any of my ancestors make the trip from Pennsylvania to witness history? Or did my they make the trip for the previous days Woman’s Suffrage Parade? I would like to believe that those that came before me spoke up and fought for the equal rights of all men and women.

Were they Democrat, Republic or possibly Progressive? Where did they go to vote? Did they go to a local school or church like we do today…unlikely. I imagine they would have had to go to Sunbury, which was the county seat, in order to place their vote.

Did any of them run for any of the various local positions in the community? I have been told that Howard P. Wetzel was elected overseer of the poor for Zerbe Township but I do not know if this was an official position or exactly it entailed so I will continue searching.

I have tried looking for any type of record that would provide an answer to any of the questions but I have not had any luck. In fact, I have not found anything to provide insight into the political activities of the 19th and early 20th century in Northumberland County. Since I am not an expert or professional genealogist, I have great hope that I just haven’t looked in the right place yet and that one day I will find the records detailing my family’s political convictions.